Kept New Year’s Resolution

Thursday, January 2, 1913:I’m so sleepy for I’m keeping later hours with my books Perhaps the thing will work all right after all. Hope it does.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma’s New Year’s resolution was to study more in 1913. I can picture a teen-aged Grandma sitting by a gas lamp huddled over her books long after everyone else went to bed. In my mind, the wind was howling and there was a chill in the room, but Grandma persevered–at least for this one day.

I’m still trying to keep my Yew Year’s resolutions. I hope they work out all right, too.

I remember the kerosene lamps my grandpa used on the farm. His house had no electricity or running water. We’d stay out there over the summer and maybe visit a couple of times in the winter. We thought it was fun, but of course we didn’t have to do any studying.

I also can remember how bad a kerosene lamp smelled when we used it one time when the power when out. After that we always used candles or flashlights. I think that I remember my mother saying that the kerosene that stores sold in the 1960s was scented–and that when she was young it was “unscented” and smelled better.